Speeches by Streeting.

“That is very good advice on vaccination. If people require health services and it not an accident or an emergency, they should call 111, visit the website or use the NHS app. There are plenty of services available to help people, but as people will have seen on their television screens and social media feeds, the curre…”

“Thanks to the decisions taken by this Labour Government, we have increased funding for general practice by £1.1 billion, we deployed not just 1,000 more GPs to the frontline in our first year as promised but 2,500 and, through reforms to the Carr-Hill formula, we are restoring the deprivation link to health funding. As…”

“I certainly hope that when making the decision about whether to go to work this week, resident doctors bear in mind the pressures that the NHS is under, the consequences of their actions on their colleagues not just this week but in the coming weeks, and—crucially —the impact that risks having on patients, which is the…”

“Yes. The JCVI makes evidence-based recommendations, and we follow its evidence. With the best will in the world, we of course give out practical, common-sense advice, but we should not infantilise our constituents. They are perfectly capable of working out who can get together this Christmas. They really do not need Go…”

“Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I just wanted to welcome the hon. Gentleman’s endorsement of vaccination. It is by far the most sensible thing he has ever said—that is a low bar, but he has cleared it, and I am very grateful to him. He might want to have a closer look at who his party platforms at…”

“No member of staff should be bullied for going to work this week and doing the right thing by patients. I am grateful to resident doctors who have been at work during previous strike actions, and I hope that we will see resident doctors do the same this week. I ask resident doctors, regardless of their views on the off…”

“I thank the hon. Member for being helpful in two ways. First, it is always good to hear voices from the right making the case for vaccine uptake. That contrasts the Conservative party starkly with Reform UK, which we hear peddle anti-science nonsense. Secondly, I thank him for reminding resident doctors and the BMA of …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Responsible trade unions think about the wider workforce and the impact on service users, whether they are children or other users of public services. Crucially, for most trade unions in this country strike action is a last resort. It is astonishing that the BMA chose to go on strike…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. Given that politicians are somewhere below traffic wardens and estate agents in terms of public popularity at the moment, it is quite an achievement for the BMA to have found itself even less popular with the public, but I think it has made very clear through its actions and…”

“There are many examples of great community-based vaccination initiatives. Many of those initiatives are supported by faith-based organisations, which is really important given the vaccine hesitancy in some of those groups. I do not believe that people are hard to reach; I believe that public services often do not try h…”

“This Labour Government are investing more in the NHS—£26 billion, rising to £29 billion over the spending review period. Urgent and emergency care is improving. Ambulance response times are improving year on year. I recognise that there are particular challenges with the West Midlands ambulance service. We are going as…”

“I speak regularly with my counterparts, and the Ministers who are either side of me this afternoon have been engaging with our counterparts in recent weeks on these issues. We have a good relationship with devolved Administrations, regardless of party or where they sit across the United Kingdom, and that is a good thin…”

“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise the interests not just of our cities and towns but of rural communities. I was proud of the emphasis that we placed on rural services and coastal communities in our 10-year plan for health, and we take that into account with our urgent and emergency care plan. I have been…”

“This is the futility of the BMA’s position. The steps that we were proposing to take—both increasing the number of specialty places and bringing forward emergency legislation to deal with UK prioritisation—would have reduced the competition ratio from around 4:1 today to less than 2:1. That would have kicked in during …”

“People can check their eligibility for a vaccine online or via the NHS app. They can and should seek to protect themselves. If people need healthcare, they should seek to access it. I do not want people to be deterred unnecessarily by strike action. It is important that people get the right care in the right place. Unl…”

“rose—”

“We do flex beds depending on needs. For example, there were just over 101,000 beds open on average per day in the past week, which was up on the previous week and broadly the same as it was this time last year. We are investing in the NHS, and we have to ensure that people get the right care, in the right place at the …”

“I am not a clinician or a scientist, but the JCVI is full of them and we follow its expert advice. It will, in the normal way, review how this winter has gone and look ahead to future pressures, but it is important that we are guided by the evidence, whatever the political pressure.”

“Through my hon. Friend I thank staff at Milton Keynes hospital for all their hard work—I have had the privilege of visiting recently—and I thank all NHS staff for what they are doing throughout this week and throughout a very challenging winter. We know that staff are working under pressure and that their pay, terms an…”

“Two things: first, we will certainly give serious consideration to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy)—the JCVI will do that in the usual way, and we follow its advice —and secondly, resident doctors have been to work in previous rounds of strikes, and I have not been made aware of b…”